Australian Leftist Story

The leftist bias of Australia’s stated owned media company the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in their news and current affairs division has been document by numerous media watchers over the years. Yet the ABC still has the nerve to claim it is unbiased despite the fact that not a single one of their news presenters is a conservative. However this bias is not confined to the news division which has the most scrutiny, it is present throughout the entire organization.

A perfect example the ABC’s systematic bias is its flagship documentary program Australian Story. According to the program’s website its aims are to seek out ‘unique stories that feature fascinating characters and original storylines with unexpected twists and turns and compelling visuals,’ and that a key part to any of its stories is that the content matter ‘is both fresh and engaging and that the themes hold universal appeal, ideally providing insight into life’s big dilemmas, challenges, current issues and the human condition’. It sounds like the program is dedicated to covering people such as community leaders, local heroes, successful entrepreneurs and daring adventurers. Although these people get an airing from time to time, the reality yet again is that this program is used to promote a left-wing, social justice and politically correct agenda.

It blatantly champions all the pet causes of the progressive left in Australia almost completely unaware itself of the agenda it is pushing. To demonstrate this you only need to go back over its programs over the past two years of which there were 87 episodes produced.

One of the biggest issues of the culture wars in recent years has been the LGBT agenda. Sure enough Australian Story has covered the issue multiple times from a supportive perspective. There was a story about a transgender teenager, a transgender man who gave birth and a two part story about two female singers in a same sex relationship and their fight for same sex marriage.

Refugee stories are another favourite theme for the program to cover with three episodes chronicling the journey of refugees to Australia. Added to this list is an episode on an Australian woman in Bendigo fighting the Islamophobia in her town and welcoming Muslims who wanted to build a Mosque there.

But easily Australian Story’s favourite topic is environmental issues with five stories documenting various people’s struggles to preserve the natural environment from its various alleged enemies. Mine developers and genetically modified crop producers are demonised and described as people who are ripping apart local rural communities.

Other left-wing issues have been covered as well including indigenous stories with four stories with indigenous issues and culture as the main theme; three stories that could be described as feminist, including a story on our current Australian of the Year David Morrison. Then there are episodes covering the fight for voluntary euthanasia and to maintain strict gun control in Australia. The only story that can be considered to be of a conservative issue or person is the two part story on Gina Rinehart.

In total that is 24 episodes out of 87 over the past two years that have a left-wing narrative to it with only 2 covering a conservative subject. In fact you can go back even further through the archives and find further examples of the prevalence of left-wing stories.

Now nobody is diminishing the achievements of the people in these left-wing themed episodes, they all are probably decent people. But the implication of only covering their stories is that they are communicating only left-wing people can achieve things for Australia. Aren’t there many conservative activists who are worthy of having their stories covered? Conservatives are also motivated by sense of wanting to achieve, doing the right thing, helping others and creating a better Australia.

Australian Story is not the only non-news and current affairs program to have this bias. The same can be said for its comedy programs, its science shows and its arts coverage. All these areas deserve more scrutiny to make sure the ABC is complying with its charter and providing balanced coverage.

Of course exposing ABC bias is one thing; actually trying to change the organisation has proved also to be an almost impossible task. Conservative governments of the past 20 years have been too scared to introduce any meaningful change to the way the ABC produces its programming or fight the pervasive left-wing culture of the organisation. But we should still keep up the pressure on both the ABC and our politicians and not think of it as a lost cause. ABC bias needs to be called out when we see it and especially not just in the news division.